Belgian authorities will be deploying soldiers to protect the country's Jewish community from further attacks after an explosion in front of a synagogue in the east of the country heightened fears of anti-Semitic violence.
"To protect our Jewish community, we are deploying military personnel to support security on our streets," Defence Minister Theo Francken said on X. "The safety of every citizen must be guaranteed. Anti-Semitism and hatred against Jews will never be tolerated. We will stand firm against it, always."
The army was last deployed to protect Jewish communities between 2015 and 2021, after ISIS-claimed terror attacks on several European states, including Belgium.
Speaking last week after a blast outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Liege blew out the windows of a building nearby in the early hours of the morning, Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said that security around Jewish sites would be strengthened.
The explosion was followed by similar incidents in neighbouring Netherlands outside a synagogue in Rotterdam and a Jewish school in Amsterdam. A bomb attack outside the US embassy in the Norwegian capital Oslo also raised alarm. No injuries were reported.
An obscure extremist group named Harakat Ashab Al Yamin al-Islamia claimed responsibility for the attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands without offering evidence. The incidents are under investigation. Four teenagers were arrested on Monday in Rotterdam.
Quoting anonymous government sources, Flemish broadcaster VRT News reported that some 24 locations would be concerned by heightened security measures in Belgium: four Jewish schools in the city of Antwerp and 20 synagogues. The deployment of soldiers is set to start "as soon as possible" according to the defence and interior ministries.
“Against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism, the attack on the synagogue in Liège has once again demonstrated that the threat to the Jewish community in Belgium is very real,” Mr Quintin said, quoted by Belgian news agency Belga.
The decision was backed by Co-ordination Committee of Jewish Organisations in Belgium and Antwerp mayor Els van Doesburg. Antwerp houses a community of roughly 20,000 Jews, one of the largest ultraorthodox Jewish communities in Europe.
